The Strathclyde Dialogues

The faculty, staff, alumni and the students of the Strathclyde Business School cordially invite you to the following thought-provoking event under The Strathclyde Dialogues

Leading the 21st Century: Is the Male Manager an Anachronism?

Date: February 06. 2012 Time: 6:00 PM 7:45 PM Venue: CTI Auditorium, CERT Technology Park, Abu Dhabi Mens College Complex, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates The following distinguished practitioners of talent management will lead the dialogue: Ms. Aseel N.Hamoodi Vice President ADCO, Abu Dhabi Ms. Sujata Pathasarathy Mr. Juan Antonio Montes Vice President - HR Senior Advisor National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Abu ADCO, Abu Dhabi Dhabi

Mr. Abraham Thomas Finance Manager Protech Abu Dhabi

Mr. Ronald Bradfield (Moderator) Director Strathclyde Business School UAE Abu Dhabi

To register for the event and directions to the venue, please contact either:
Abu Dhabi: Lena Shaban Tel: + 971 2 404 8546/8548 Email: lena.strath@hct.ac.ae Dubai: Sheena Mohideen Tel: +971 4 208 9280 Email: sheena.strath@hct.ac.ae

Background Note to the Dialogue

It is perhaps a truism that today women are gaining more prominence in all aspects of society. In many countries women now constitute a larger percentage of the electorate. For instance, in the US the figure is nearly 55% and marketers find that women are the decision makers for well over 50% of all purchase decisions. In the world of business, large multinational firms like PepsiCo, Craft Foods and Xerox are led by women managers. Is there something called womens management style? Do women manage differently from their male counterparts? Do they perform better or worse as leaders than male managers? Are they more or less entrepreneurial than their male counterparts? Are there cultural and contextual factors that make a difference to the effectiveness of the male and female styles? Do the difference in opportunities men and women get make differences? The management literature often reports that women who succeed display attitudes and behaviors that are more ascribable to men. Even a cursory look at the management research suggests that managers, whether male or female, perceive successful managers as possessing characteristics usually attributed to men in general - competitive, combative, and individualistic. Are such findings themselves the results of a dominant male bias in the research field? After all some research findings tell us that women make better managers where the work involves teams of high-capacity individuals, consensus decision making, empowerment and transformational change. There are also those who claim that in the flat, interconnected, informational world of today there is a need for change from the dominant, damningly competitive masculine management psychology of the past 200-300 years. What we need to survive and succeed in the future is a new breed of managers who are more cooperative, who have the ability to nurture relationships, who are more reflective and tolerant, who are perhaps more patient with organic growth impulses in short, attributes generally regarded as more in line with the female psyche. The question then is: Is the stereotypical male manager anachronistic? A dinosaur that needs to be replaced?

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